Delhi rape survivor sues Uber taxi app

A woman who was allegedly raped by an Uber taxi driver in New Delhi last month has filed a lawsuit against the service in a US court. She is also seeking a permanent injunction to make sure the company introduces safety precautions.

The 25-year-old woman, who filed the lawsuit in a California
federal court, has called the taxi firm the “modern day
equivalent of electronic hitchhiking.”

Uber allows customers to order a taxi through a mobile phone app
and operates in over 250 cities around the world. It is valued at
US$40 billion.

The service was banned from the streets of Delhi after the
December 5 rape. India has a troubled history of sexual violence
against women.

The woman – who is being identified as 'Jane Doe' – is asking for
damages due to physical and monetary harm, as well as the harm
caused to her “professional and personal reputations.”
The exact amount she is seeking remains unknown.

She is also slapping a permanent injunction on the firm to make
sure it introduces necessary safety precautions and to
“prevent repeated occurrences in the future.”

"We intend to hold Uber responsible for the significant
physical and emotional harm it has caused to our client, while
simultaneously seeking a court order mandating that Uber initiate
certain safety precautions that they appear unwilling to do
voluntarily," said Douglas Wigdor, the woman’s lawyer, who
is a prominent New York attorney.

Wigdor said that by cutting costs on basic safety issues, Uber
has introduced a service which can “only be described as
modern day hitchhiking.”

Jeanne Christensen, a partner at Wigdor LLP law firm, said that
Uber’s cost-cutting forced the young female executive to “pay
the ultimate price.”

Uber does not have cameras installed in cars, and does not carry
out background checks on its drivers. The Uber driver in Delhi
was a known repeat sexual predator.

“We intend to hold Uber accountable for violence that could
easily have been avoided had even a minimal background check been
conducted,” said Christensen.

The injunction will demand that Uber implement safety measures,
including: 24X7 customer support centers in every city they
operate in; video cameras and GPS tracking systems in all
vehicles; and provide female drivers.

There were protests in Delhi after the rape allegations against
the Indian driver surfaced. India is reeling from the horrific
gang rape of a student on a moving bus in late 2012, which
resulted in her death.